Zambia Issues RfP for Development of 100 MW Solar Projects

The GET FiT Zambia Secretariat for the Zambian Ministry of Energy, recently announced the launch of the Request for Proposal (RfP) stage of Round 1 of GET FiT Zambia, a 100 MW Solar PV tender, as a part of the country’s renewable energy programme.

Under the GET FIT Zambia initiative, launched in 2017, the African republic has planned to add at least 200 MW of small scale renewables to its energy mix. The programme is a joint initiative of the Zambian government and German development bank KfW. GET FiT program has been designed to implement Zambia’s first Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFiT) Strategy. The REFiT Strategy calls for small-scale renewables (1-20MW) to be built in Zambia over the next three-years. GET FiT aims to provide financing, liquidity, and technical support to ensure rapid development of renewable energy projects.

The competitive bidding round will follow a Request for Qualification (RfQ) phase, which pre-qualified 10 companies and consortia back in June. All shortlisted candidates will be able to submit their proposals under the RfP by November 29. During July and August 2018, GET FiT Zambia partnered with ZESCO, Zambia’s state owned power company, to assess the proposed sites to ensure that grid capacity is sufficient to connect the Projects presented at a given location.

The shortlisted firms are:

1. Building Energy S.P.A, Italy
2. EDF Energies Nouvelles, France
3. Enel Green Power S.P.A., Italy
4. Engie Afrique S.A., South Africa
5. Globeleq African Holdings Ltd & Aurora Power Solutions, South Africa
6. InnoVent SAS & Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc, Zambia
7. Mulilo Group Holdings Proprietary Ltd, South Africa
8. Phanes Group, Dubai
9. Scatec Solar ASA, Norway
10.  SolarReserve Development Co, USA

The secretariat hopes to conclude the tendering process by early 2019 based on a thorough evaluation of technical and financial criteria. Applicants selected for award will sign a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with ZESCO to deliver low-cost clean energy to the Zambia, which at present generates only 2.4 GW of renewable energy.

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